Present day surgical procedures regularly use sets of pre-selected surgical instruments for a specified surgical procedure. These instruments are regularly grouped together to form a set. The set is sterilized and stored on a tray or pan and eventually transported on the tray to an operating area for use as required. Examples of such racks are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,925,014 to Langdon, issued Dec. 9, 1975, 4,135,868 to Schainholz, issued Jan. 23, 1979, 4,294,290 to Smith et al, issued Oct. 21, 1980, 4,342,391 to Schainholz, issued Aug. 3, 1982, 4,577,755 to Ramsay, issued Mar. 25, 1986, and 4,641,749 to Link et al, issued Feb. 10, 1987.
Many of the above-mentioned prior art patents provide means for supporting the instruments in an upright position and maintaining scissor-like instruments in a open condition to allow for sterilization of portions of the instruments which would not be exposed to sterilization if the instruments were in the closed condition. For example, the Langon patent discloses a rack comprising an open frame and a pair of removable retaining bars which selectively hold the instrument in an open condition during sterilization to retain the instruments on the rack until use thereof is desired. Instruments such as scissor-like instruments which include lock boxes for locking the instruments in a closed position must be held open to expose portions of the lock boxes as well as any over-lapping scissor portions. A problem exists with this type of rack because a single rod is used to maintain the instruments in an open condition. To have access to any of the instruments, the rod retaining the instruments in the open condition must be removed from all of the instruments or at least a portion of the instruments. The rod further helps to maintain the instruments in an upright position. Once the rod is removed to have access to the remainder of the instruments, the instruments can be tilted and fall together thereby removing the alignment and spacing of the instruments on the rack, as well as contaminating the once sterile instruments.
Several other of the above discussed patents include various other means for maintaining the instruments in an upright position and in an open condition. For example, the Smith et al patent discloses a surgical instrument rack which includes a plurality of upstanding spaced portions for seating instruments therein and maintaining the instruments in an upright position. The rack further includes a second portion which is connectable to the first portion for maintaining the instruments in an open condition. Again, similar to the prior art patents discussed above, removal of the second rack portion to provide access to one instrument allows all of the remaining instruments to be able to close and possibly fall off of the rack.
The present invention addresses the problems set forth above by providing means for positively gripping the instruments held on the subject instrument rack thereby maintaining the instruments in an upright position. If the instruments are the type of instrument which can be opened, such as a scissor-like instrument, the present invention further can maintain the instruments in an open condition whether or not a secondary member, such as a rod, is used to hold the instruments in an open condition.